Saturday belongs to Julian Sayin. How it’s remembered depends entirely on how the Ohio State quarterback performs against No. 1-ranked Texas in the most anticipated game of the season’s first half.
Not only is this a rematch of their 2024 College Football Playoff clash — won by Ohio State — it marks the first regular-season meeting between these storied programs in 20 years. That last encounter ended in a resounding Texas win, punctuated by the rise of Vince Young in one of the most electrifying performances in college football history.
Texas’ current starting QB, Arch Manning, has been analyzed from every angle. Julian Sayin? He hasn’t even started a college game. That changes Saturday, when the former five-star — the No. 1 QB in his class and Nick Saban’s final quarterback recruit — steps into the spotlight at Ohio Stadium.
Sayin, who appeared in just four total games during the 2024 season, was always going to face Texas. Whether it comes this year or next, the Longhorns are the top team in the SEC and are favored to win the conference. Still, it’s telling that Saban believed Sayin was ready to play before most thought he could — or should.
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According to a passage in “The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos” — Sayin turned down enormous NIL offers from other schools to sign with Alabama as part of the 2024 class because he had longed to play for Saban since he was a child. It also details the story of Saban’s wife, Terry, telling a friend the couple wished Sayin was already on the roster and could have played in the team’s 10-point defeat to Texas in 2023.
That’s how much confidence Saban had in Sayin when he was coming out of high school.
Now, set to make the first start of his career against the top-ranked team in the nation on Saturday at The Shoe, Sayin will look to put an end to an alarming drought for first-time starting signal-callers.
Since 2010, quarterbacks making their first career start against an AP No. 1-ranked team are 0-16. In fact, the last time a quarterback making his first career start defeated an AP No. 1-ranked team was back in 1984, when Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh led the Wolverines to a victory against No. 1 Miami (FL).
There isn’t a Buckeye fan alive or dead who wouldn’t want to see Sayin end that drought — especially against the team they hate most, and a quarterback with a last name they know all too well. That task now falls to Sayin, who’s been given a simple directive from head coach Ryan Day:
“Just win. Find a way to win.”
Quarterback Julian Sayin #10 of the Ohio State Buckeyes warms-up prior to the Ohio State Spring Game. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)
Day had the following to say when asked about the message he would deliver to his QB ahead of Saturday’s top-three clash.
“Take care of the ball. … If you need to throw it away, throw it away,” Day said. “Don’t worry about anything else other than winning the game. That’s the most important thing. That’s the job of the quarterback.”
That’s how Sayin will be remembered following Saturday’s matchup. Wins aren’t any more of a QB stat in college football than they are for starting pitchers in Major League Baseball, but most games aren’t as big as this one. And they’re not as closely watched, analyzed and replayed as the one Sayin is about to play in.
Conclusions, fairly and unfairly, will be drawn. Sayin won’t have Day or even Chip Kelly holding the playcalling sheet. Instead, it will be another first-timer, offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, managing the shape of the offense, its tempo and its personnel on behalf of Sayin.
No one should expect Ohio State’s offense to run smoothly all game, and no one should expect a completely clean game from Sayin. However, every one of the 100,000 Buckeye fans in The Shoe and millions around the country will expect one thing above all else: a win.
Quarterback Julian Sayin #10 of Ohio State runs the ball during the fourth quarter of a game against Purdue. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)
If Sayin wins this Saturday, he’ll cement his position as the starter at the Ohio State University with a program-defining victory. If he loses, the earth won’t open up and swallow him whole — though some Buckeye fans might wish it did, before directing their anger back at the team that was just crowned national champions and had beaten this team wearing the same uniforms just eight months ago.
Either way, Saturday is Julian Sayin’s Day. How we remember it is up to him.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.
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